PEORIA, Ill. - Illinois State guard Daishon Knight scored a game-high 15 points, including five straight during a 9-1 run that put the visitors in control early, as the Redbirds (16-11, 8-7 MVC) earned a sweep in the Interstate 74 Rivalry series against Bradley (8-20, 3-12 MVC) with a 60-47 Missouri Valley Conference win Wednesday night at Carver Arena.

Deontae Hawkins added 12 points and nine rebounds for the Redbirds, while Reggie Lynch chipped in 12 points and five blocked shots. Illinois State finished with eight blocked shots, contributing to Bradley's 16-for-54 (.296) field goal shooting effort.

Omari Grier was Bradley's lone double-digit scorer, finishing with 10 points for the Braves. Auston Barnes added nine points and nine rebounds. While the duo combined to make 7-of-13 (.538) field goal attempts, the rest of the Braves were just 9-for-41 (.220) from the field, including 1-for-9 (.111) from 3-point range.

Scoring was hard to come by for both teams early, as the I-74 rivals were locked in a 5-5 tie before Knight put the Redbirds in front for good with a short jumper with 14:08 left. He added a 3-pointer for a 10-5 lead with 10:52 and the Redbirds stretched their lead to 14-6 before Warren Jones scored in transition for the Braves to end a near 10-minute drought without a field goal.

The Braves pulled to within 25-20 on a Grier 3-pointer with 2:56 left in the first half, but Bradley managed only one more field goal, a nate Wells jumper with 43 seconds left in the half, until Jones again scored in transition with 12:57 left in the game. By that time, Illinois State had pushed its advantage to double digits and the Braves got no closer than six points the rest of the game.

Bradley will hit the road for its next two games, starting with a Saturday afternoon visit to #11 Northern Iowa for a 3 p.m. game to be televised on the MVC-TV network.